Lord of the rings online

Little and unpleasant time it was. Logged in. Asked if there was anyone in Regional chat. Response from typical Lotro player: “Shut up”. Everyone else was silent, in complete agreement.  I thought to block that player, but decided not to.
To my surprise later there was one kind player who answered question. And another one, a bit later. I am really gratefull to them.

Bloxd

Military outpost goes so slowly. Much grind, like making a wall around outpost or placing hundreds of floor titles. I employed my moderator to do this grindy job. And he mostly succeeded. I had to correct certain things, but overall – everything was good. So now my outpost status: first part is completely finished; second part has barracks, armories and baths finished, siege machines finished – only interior of defense structures remain. I built a flag, also ceremonial square.
My moderator is…reliable. I can give him certain tasks and they would be done quickly+efficiently.At least one person that can be trusted.

SR

Logged in. There was wipe, so had to recreate my toon. Game had many positive changes. Intro is shorter and more reliable. We have race select and some customization too. There are tooltips for almost anything, like “This tool does this and that, press this to make Action A, press that to make Action B”. Graphic is always was – top one, inviting and nice.

Other changes are not that good. Navigation to planets made problematic – you must act like acrobat to fit into small hole. Skills must be purchased at space station. Skills became super expensive. Basic upgrade is some 1200 coins, if you want anything good – you will be spending millions of tokens. The only way to get them are very hard missions. So, wellcome to slavery system, slave.
Player job selection is gone. A pity, it was some choice. Now everyone gets few tools + worthless “weapon”. While good at roleplay or fun, it never had any combat usage.

I landed in some random planet. There were structures, flora…and signature silence. Silence that defines SR. There were no players on Space station and no talks in Space station. There were no players on planet and no talks on planet.

I gathered some trash materials. Did not care what they were and where are they used. My mission ended, logged off.

—

It looks like Lotro and SR are setting up quality defenses agains casual players. Mock, insult, ignore, put into impossible situations – so that they leave and only loyal elitists remain. SR is no longer the game I was expecting. It is a game I [most likely] would  never play. And game that is extremely easy to predict: I think I understand SR inner logic, so almost any move can be predicted with ease.

Online life narrowed to Bloxd only. Lotro is complete silence with locals hating me. Hating for using Regional chat. Hating for just telling “hi” or asking questions. Hate and silence. Well, the best defense they are against loyal casuals.

If only I had anything normal to play and any community to be in…

Lord of the rings online

Absolutely nothing. Few log ins, Hobbit presents, failed talks in Regional chat.

Bloxd

The time things turned interesting. I am building my military base, Wintervale. It is a rather small outpost, consisting of two parts. Both parts have 1 heavy ballista and 2 small ballistas. First part has house of outpost Commander and local chapel (it’s neo-middle ages after all). All outpost is surrounded by wall. Since this requires lots and lots of planning and grindy building, I asked my Marquis to help.

And help he did. All towers with copy-paste. Too high to be acceptable, so I had to change it. Then, he created cemetery behind chapel with lots of graves. Emmm…for an outpost with, say, 40 soldiers? But my Marquis was really creative. He invented one huge battle, thousands of soldiers fighting, fight being heavy, but at the end good guys (we, the Imperials) prevailed. So, within this outpost, casualties from that epic battle are burried. This is not what I expected, but this can stay and add some real feelings towards my civilization. Which cannot have battle where 10.000 soldiers fight – entire population is ~300…

However, I got help, so can direct some jobs to my Marquis and I could concentrate on planning and lore creating. My current team member is active, entirely on my side and does some roleplay. I am quite happy with him. If he manages to finish this military outpost, it would be great help.

—

My playing gives feeling of…light dissatisfaction. In Lotro I am absolutely alone, nothing to do, nobody to socialize with; in Bloxd I am alone in my attempt to create a living medieval civilization.

I really wish to have some normal, grown-up socialization. Some real activity. And no game can provide me with this.

Lord of the rings online

Absolutely nothing. Hobbit presents, log off.

Bloxd

Nuked my military base. All of it. Next, quickly outlined new shape: 1 tower for main ballista (25 x 25 blocks size), some wall, 2 towers for little ballistas (15 x 15 blocks). Then, I have two barracks (19 x 35), 4 armouries…and possibly a house for my Marquise who was given command of an outpost.

Next, to build this monstrocity, post boards telling imoprtant info – from ballista usage to mood of soldiers – and military outpost is finished.

Lord of the rings online

It’s Yule, so it’s time for some relaxation. I run only two of my toons through this festival. Not hurrying anywhere. Taking positive solutions only (support the poor; do not take “moving them off”). Enjoying these little nice activities. Enjoying the number of tokens I accumulate.

Contrary to what some pessimists say: no, having tons of tokens do NOT discourage me from participating. I have enough tokens to buy every new item. But I have also need in some relaxed [almost] non-violent activity.

As always, snowball fight is empty. One time I saw advertisiment of it; one time I saw players engaging in it. Why do developers keep this most unpopular activity, remains a mystery.

Yet I will do Yule quests all the time.It’s just nice and I could even try to act in theatre (King of Angmar for the win!).

Bloxd

Town hall, this big building, is close to completion. I also had visitors, they enjoy my efforts and architecture. If only I had one experienced reliable helper – I would make much, more in much, much shorter time.

Well, after town hall is done, I could dedicate myself to standard houses. They need only some patience. Few streets completed – and I am  good to focus on some creative buildings (shops/priest houses/second church).

Master of Magic

Little play, since game mostly gives me very bad conditions. Ones that I cannt have a chance to win. So I start, restart, then start-restart…and so untill I get at least minimal conditions.

—

I do have some chores to do. All I lack in every mmo is socialization. Cannot find it anywhere, no matter how I try. But maybe this is just a sign of our epoch – lack of any talks, except trolling or absolutely mechanical?

Lord of the rings online

Level cap related mission grind, picking easiest missions and turning in taskboard items. No chatting, which really makes me feel bad. But well, when no chatting option is available, how do I chat?

Then it was downtime, some bug fixing related. I could (in theory) reforge my Legendary weapon and start everything anew: remove traceries, purchase new, use absolutely all runes to max my traceries…for the sake of maxing.

Bloxd

Still working, without enthusiasm, on local town hall. It is a mini castle, it must be nice, practical, ideologically correct and medieval. Which makes it a second job. Interior needs warmth. Interior needs light. Mayor needs advisors. Advisors needs some stories (boards with texts) about their job and also some decorations reflecting their job. Everything must be done by me only.

My problem is, I have no helpers. Give me one half-dedicated person and Skarhald would be finished in no time. I work on complicated issues, helper just clones living houses. I work on complicated issues, helper makes the streets, posts adresses on houses (like “Grumpy street 1”). Easy-peasy, but feel free to find responsible kid who can spend time on helping, not killing/destroying.

But I will finish main Skarhald. After townhall, there would be second church and few shops.  Everything else – just standard living houses. And well-deserved rest after that.

Of course, I would need advertised 200 people living there. Leave maybe half houses “occupied” by NPCs and remaining half – for players to claim.

In a perfect universe, I would be constructing this in SR and players would come to wander or roleplay. But we both (SR and me) know this would never happen.

Lord of the rings online

Once again, nothing. There is nothing more I could want to do in Lotro. Run ultracomplicated 3D mazes in Gundabad? No, thanks. Try exploring un-explorable Welkin Lofts? No, thanks. Grind supergrindy deeds for magic 5 LP? Emmm…nope.
Chats were dead, as always.

Bloxd

I tried to plan my town. Then, made one nice discovery: I left few houses intentionally unfinished. Each house shows the exact layout of cetain floor: 1, 2, 3 and 4. Thus, for future builds I just have to look at appropriate house.

Helper would be needed, but with determination I could and will build everything alone. That’s where I do laugh at SR – they want to build town and ask “comunity” to aid. Lol!!! Give me plot of land and enough tokens to buy abilities: I will build nice town alone, with zero help. Some planning, then possibly 1-2 weeks for build and maybe week to gather resources. But yeah, let’s publicise “community” and its “efforts”…

The day has ended, a bit usefull in Bloxd only.

Lord of the rings online

Nothing happened. No content to do, nobody to talk to and even no Kinship to join. Reasons to log: zero. So I log did not.

Bloxd

After too long hiatus I finished church of Saint Anne (considered to be one of patrons of miners), even if colours of glasses are wrong – there is no green. Then, created belltower, at the expense of living house. This morning finished little street for miners: 8 houses, 3 people in each. Houses are inferior to main Skarhald – reflecting the fact that they were built first, in a hurry + rich folks are always a priority.

Copying-pasting resulted in disaster, Bloxd fails to safely make it. Well, either I find out how it works or would have to make all manually.

Some visitors advice me to introduce quests. Guess it involves heavy scripting, so – asking for big help.

Had some visitors too. Most of them do value my carefully designed world. Some says this lobby is better than 99ƒ% others. It could be true – I think about every detail. City needs roads, long road needs water source; cities need supply with foods (and thus a network of villages). Citizens must be doing something, they must be governed, their need (from toilet to church) must alos be satisfied.

Sometimes I think that in SR I could have done builds like this, on better and bigger scale; with adult population my little civilization could thrive. But I do know very well it would never ever, under any circumstances, happen.

Master of Magic

Same scheme: Lo Pan + orcs, first turn – convert all gold to mana, summon Magic Spirit, scout surroundings and leave starter 2 units in capital. Build Granary, research is best with Corruption, then – Encahnt item.

After that it is pure question of luck. If there are easy enemies – conquer their towns. Focus on building Magicians and hire heroes that offer magical attack. With severa magicians and at least one hero, clear all nodes nearby. Research Create Artifact, make one with invisibility. With invisible hero, clear nodes infested with ranged monsters.

And with such hero, start campaign to destroy enemies. Best option is enemy ranged units within city walls. They do not leave city, so your hero is safe to kill them all.

In most cases things are not that interesting in Intro difficulty. You could wait, corrupt everything in enemy lands, try to annihilate poory defended enemy towns…and then resume annihilating big towns of enemy.

—

My gosh, I do need one helper in Bloxd! Things would be easy: use my pattern and make houses, floor after floor.
And I also need to find something to do in Lotro. Right now I stand in Bree, watching empty chat.

Lord of the rings online

Absolutely nothing. Nobody to talk with, nowhere to talk, nothing to do. All I need is some type of socialization: not random one, just normal, instant. And advice about what to do, except talking.

None of this is happening.

Bloxd

Had one rude player telling me to shut up and threatening with hacks (oh dear kids, calm down…). Unfortunately, had to ban him.
Banning means defeat for one who bans. It means you failed to deal with problem and chosen the easiest path. You could convince person to act normally. You could just ignore rude person so rude peson leaves. Instead, you ban and acknowledge your own failure.

Instead, finally managed to do something that resembles a normal medieval house. Built one experimental, now started building 3 of them at once. Made layout for workers’ district (even if it is too little space for houses). Re-planned main town so that I could see layout of the begining.  Heraldry is made too.

All I need are players. Not my angry ex co-owner, just normal players who would explore and roleplay.

Master of Magic

Downloaded, started playing. The game is so good, so well thought that it is still a masterpiece. You have to plan everything, cannot zerg, must think about almost every resource. I spent lots of hours there and am happy with this old, yet very good game.

—

I need something new and no idea what exactly. Lotro means emptyness – I have done all I could there; Bloxd means kids that want pvp and destruction.
What I would need is some mmo where I could craft my own empire without fear of being griefed/killed. Without need to be a hero and upgrade armour at yet another dungeon.
Is there such free mmo? No idea. Sounds too good to exist.

Lord of the rings online

Nothing happened. Logging in, taking hobbit presents, trying to chat in Regional, logging off. Regional chat is empty and Gundabad…well, it’s two worst of its regions that is left. Absolutely no wish to run them, even for Lotro points.

Bloxd

This is where things got interesting. My co-owner wrote code to give custom titles. So there were maybe 10 jobs with their own teleportation points. We had visitors who were eager to roleplay as, say, explorer.
I had to sacrifice some things, like teleport points to towns. I had to allow making ice tunnel (even when my NPCs did not meet any ice).
Then it was pressure to hasten things and ignore reality. Last drop was when one roleplay important structure was just destroyed. No warnings, no mails – structure was gone.
That was that. I demoted co-owner to simple user. He started complaining about his code I “stole” (huh…I did not even ask for it). I deleted all code. At the end I set ex co-owner to spectator: he could fly, observe, but not interact.

Co-owner complained and left. Then I undid some of his changes: teleportation points are back again and ice tunnel is no more. Roleplay important structure, unfortunately, cannot be rebuilt.

One kind person went to judge my houses. He was not impressed. He offered new, better, even if a bit fantasy-looking design. Everything was ok with that design…untill I tried to figure out functionality. Turned out,  there was no space for fireplace, bath, wc…I left the house intact. And then tried to copy some of design ideas. I made some experimental house (always ground floor), demolished, then made another, demolished…untill got something that could look like rich medieval house.

Of course, I thanked that person. He was kind to come and help. His ideas I will use. I also explained my limitations to houses. “Box design” was the most logic to make blueprints – and an attempt to imitate fachwerk.

And so it was all about liberties: liberty to demolish and liberty to help. I do not feel good in punishing person who worked on my server. But his actions became more and more pressing, destructive. I really wish we could have parted in a more friendly way.